A long overdue punishment for her failure to appropriately disclose donations to her election non-campaign looks to be in the offing following the recommendation by the Holyrood standards committee that she be suspended for a day.
However, as the Scottish Parliament has now been suspended for the summer recess the matter must be further drawn out until September when parliament will be given the opportunity to vote on the matter.
There has been a lot of hoo-ha over this case as Alexander did seek advice, was seemingly given advice , before later being given contradictory advice. The thinking seems to be that she had been in breach of the rules in advance of seeking advice in the first instance and that she had therefore flouted the rules and possibly only then sought advice at the point at which she realised that there may have been a cock-up - that, however, is merely supposition on my part.
Irritatingly one of the numpties involved in the non-campaign, David Whitton MSP, has been reported as saying:
“The result of this ballot didn’t actually mean anything - whether it’s one day, a week, a year - it doesn’t really matter.”
The ballot actually does mean something. It means the Leader of the opposition faces the very real possibility of being suspended from parliament, which is hardly a great thing for any senior politicians prospects, nevermind that of the supposed leader of a party.
Still, I guess we’re all just going to have to wait and find out what happens to the clown in question. I’m guessing that whatever happens she’ll be left speechless.
